Nicky and the Mystery of the Polka Dots
by Kaliope Agathon
Summary: Nicky and Hera have a heart-to-heart at Daycare and discover the mystery of polka dots. Spoilers up to "Someone to watch over me", S4 E17


Author's note: This was inspired by my frequent wondering whether or not Hera was ever going to start talking ;-). And I wanted to try writing a BSG Fic with at least a little bit of humour. ;-)

Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica and its characters belong to the producers of Battlestar Galactica. I am merely borrowing them for my own amusement.

**Nicky and the mystery of the Polka-dots**

Babies who interact with each other seem to have their own little language.

It is a language most beautiful to behold and, sadly, very easy to forget.

There were not very many children on board Galactica, but two of the few really stood out in the crowd.

One was special because she was the child of a Cylon and a human.

The other child had a Cylon stepfather, which, in a way, was just as wild.

Or at least Nicky liked to think so.

Over the last couple of weeks Nicky had been traded back and forth between his human father and his Cylon father and he did _not _appreciate it all too much.

When it came to dads, Galen Tyrol had most certainly been the cooler of the pair.

Nicky did not like to think of himself as snobbish, but he could not deny there was a certain pride in being able to say "My dad is Galactica's chief – what about yours?"

Now all he could say was "My daddy is a pilot named Hot Dog".

Had he been old enough Nicky would have most certainly snorted at the thought.

Hot Dog! Granted, he did not know what a hot dog was, exactly, but it did not sound all too inviting and definitely not as cool as Chief.

Besides, like all toddlers, Nicky appreciated his parent-child cuddling time and his Cylon-daddy was a lot cuddlier than his haggard human daddy who had yet to learn that Nicky preferred to go to sleep with his stuffed rabbit tucked safely under his arm and not lying somewhere at the end of the bed, thank you very much.

His mommy would not have made that mistake, but then she had also tried to go for a walk in space with him, so she had not necessarily been the smartest mom in the world either.

Nicky's musings were interrupted by a spoon full of strange goo that was suddenly pushed against his mouth.

Startled, he opened his mouth to protest which Human-Daddy apparently took as sign of approval, because he proceeded to shove the disgusting concoction into his mouth.

For a moment, Nicky was seriously tempted to spit the offensive mass out, but Human-Daddy was trying really hard and after all the quality of the food was not his fault.

Five minutes later, Hot Dog stood up from the table and started rummaging through the bag of clothes that Cylon-Daddy had left him for Nicky.

The toddler hoped that Cylon-Daddy had not forgotten to pack his best red shirt. Red was Hera's favorite color (Nicky had always figured it was probably a Cylon-thing) and when he wore the shirt, he was sure to hold her attention for more than just the occasional date in the playpen.

***

When Nicky and Hot Dog arrived at the day care center, Hera was nowhere to be seen.

That was fine with Nicky though. He liked to be there a couple of minutes before her because it always gave him the opportunity to give her a grand welcome.

Human-Daddy had not been gone for long when Hera and her own Human-Daddy walked into the room. Or rather, Human-Daddy walked, for Hera was riding on his shoulders.

The little girl had frequently offered to take him for a ride on her daddy-mobile, but Nicky had to admit he was a little intimidated by Hera's father.

He was just a little too big for his liking. Not cuddly big, but scary-big, even though Hera swore that when it came to cuddling, her father was just as good as, if not even better than his Cylon-Daddy.

Nicky watched in awe as Captain Agathon lowered his daughter to the ground. Today she was dressed in a violet shirt and dark purple skirt which – in Nicky's opinion – went lovely with her dark eyes and black curly hair. A couple of goodbye-kisses later, Hera happily made her way over to her best friend.

"Do you remember when you told me that your mommy kept feeding you disgusting goo without sugar? I think my Human-Daddy took cooking lessons from her, because he tried to feed me the same stuff, today!"

Hera giggled. "I was wondering, where that stuff had gone to. Mommy has not offered it to me ever since we spent that morning in the brig and everyone was shouting and shooting all day", she mused.

Nicky frowned. "You know, it really is not fair that you got to experience all the fun while I was stuck in daycare, waiting for you all day."

Hera shook her head. "Actually I am not even sure it was fun. My mommy certainly did not look like it was fun to her. And my daddy obviously thought it was quite boring, as well, because he slept through almost all of it. He bumped his head though, so maybe he was just trying to get better."

"That's probably true. When my Human-Daddy finally came to pick me up from daycare that night, he looked like he did not have a very fun day, either."

Hera looked at him intently, while she reached for her crayons. "How are things going with your two daddies anyhow? I have not seen your Cylon-Daddy picking you up from daycare in a long time?"

Nicky shrugged. "I have not seen my Cylon-Daddy in a while, either. It almost feels as if he didn't want me around anymore."

"Oh I don't think so. He was your daddy for a lot longer than the other one."

"I know… so tell me though, what else is new at your home?"

Hera thought about this for a while. "My mommy and daddy are worried a lot. It seems that there is something wrong with the ship."

Nicky nodded. "Oh yes, I saw a lot of holes in the walls yesterday."

"Well maybe that is the reason for your Cylon-Daddy not being around so much. Isn't he the one who is supposed to repair the ship?"

Nicky beamed at his friend. Hera always had the best solutions for everything. "Of course, that's probably the reason."

Hera smiled. "How long do you think it will take them to get the ship fixed? My mommy mentioned something about Cylon super-glue that they wanted to use."

"Cylon super-glue? That seems kind of wrong?"

"My daddy says, a lot of people think it is wrong for us to use the Cylon super-glue. I don't see why though. My mommy is a Cylon and there is nothing wrong with my mommy. And your Cylon-Daddy is pretty nice, too."

"I totally agree. I wonder why people are still so tense whenever the Cylons are mentioned. Shouldn't they have made friends by now? What is so bad about them anyways? You are a half-Cylon and I like you a lot."

Nicky blushed, causing Hera to giggle some more.

"I like you, too! I am not sure but I think it has something to do with a big fight the Humans and the Cylons had four years ago. My daddy always says we have to move beyond that and start respecting each other. I am not really sure, what he means, but you know, there must be some way out of here."

Nicky nodded. "Hey, did you hear that there is a new Cylon on board? Apparently she was on board before, but then she didn't come back from New Caprica and everybody thought she had gotten lost, or something like that."

"I heard she was the wife of our XO." Hera's voice dropped down to a whisper as she delivered this juicy piece of information.

"Really? Why are you whispering?"

"Didn't you hear that the XO and another Cylon were going to have a baby? His wife was not really happy about that. But the baby died. I am really sad that the baby died, I was looking forward to not being the only Cylon-child around anymore."

Nicky sighed. "I am sorry that I turned out to be all-human after all. I would have liked to be a Cylon-Human-Hybrid, like you. We could have gotten married and then we could have had Human-Cylon-Cylon-Human-Hybrids!"

Hera flashed Nicky her most brilliant smile. "I don't think it works that way. But I would still marry you, you know. My mommy is a Cylon and she didn't care my daddy was all human, remember?"

Nicky had to restrain himself to clap his chubby toddler hands in delight. He did not think such behavior was appropriate for a young man who had just gotten engaged.

"Then it is decided, right? As soon as we find a nice planet to live on, we are going to get married, right?"

Hera shrugged. "I have to ask my mommy and daddy first, though. They are always very careful about who I can spend time with."

Nicky nodded approvingly. "I have to ask my daddies, too. But I am sure neither of them would mind. My mommy would probably have had a fit, but then she took a walk out of an airlock, you know."

Hera smiled at him once more, before she turned all of her attention to her drawing. "That is a lot of dots", Nicky remarked as he looked at her picture.

"That's what the joker said to the thief" Hera mumbled in return, still concentrating on placing the colorful dots in their right order.

Nicky frowned at her in confusion. "What do you mean? What is a joker? And why did he say something to a thief? Did they steal the dots?"

Hera paused. When she looked at Nicky again, her eyes were filled with wonderment. "I actually don't know. There is too much confusion about this."

Her little fingers slowly danced over the paper, touching each and every dot. "I have been drawing this for days now. It feels like there is this force inside my head that wants me to draw these pictures, but it doesn't matter how often I draw them, I just can't get no relief."

Nicky reached out his little hand to pat his friend on her arm comfortingly. "If you want to, I can help you draw dots. Maybe if we did it together, you won't have to think about it as much."

Hera flashed him another one of her bedazzling smiles. "I would like that."

***

"Hey Baby!"

Hera's look of surprise turned into joy within a second. She had not expected her mommy to pick her up from daycare so soon today.

Nicky looked up from the dots he had been drawing all morning to see how Hera's Cylon-Mommy affectionately picked her daughter up from the ground and stuck a zippy-cup of water in her mouth.

"Look what mommy brought you, yeah, drink it all, good."

Nicky shook his head. "I really think, they should stop treating you like a baby", he mouthed to Hera.

The little girl smiled around her zippy cup. "If it makes them happy, let them do it", her dark eyes seemed to say to Nicky, who grinned in return.

He and Hera had both figured out a long time ago that Karl and Sharon Agathon were probably trying to overcompensate for the time they had not gotten to spend with Hera as an infant, by treating her like an infant still.

"We forgot all about her physical today", Cylon-Mommy said to the day-care teachers, one foot already out of the door.

Nicky barely had time to wave Hera goodbye before the mother-daughter duo disappeared around the corner.

They probably had not only forgotten about the physical, but were also terribly late for the physical.

Smiling, Nicky turned back to his polka-dots and continued humming the song Hera had been teaching him all morning.

He would discover why the thief had tried to steal the dots sooner or later.

The End


End file.
